Tennessee's legislators pander and posture recklessly on lots of issues, but few could harm the state's economic prospects as much as trying to put tests for drivers' licenses under English-only rules. Regrettably, that's precisely the purpose of a bill that a legislative committee wrongly approved Tuesday.
As if to rub in the insult, the committee's approval followed a a lawmaker's rude harangue to a Volkswagen lobbyist in response to the lobbyist's expression of concern about the legislation.
Mark Smith, the VW lobbyist, said he believed such a "one-size-fits-all, English-only, no-exception legislation is perhaps not the gesture of Southern hospitality that we think that companies looking to Tennessee are looking for."
"That speaks closely to blackmail," Rep. Tony Shipley, R-Kingsport, snapped back. Mr. Smith countered that he was not intimating that VW would pick up and leave. Rather, he said, he was concerned that by acquiescing to the English-only rule, VW might look like it supported such an action, when it clearly does not.
That's a telling comment on foreign companies' sensitivity to blatant anti-immigrant legislation. It's a sentiment the Legislature should seriously consider before a final vote on English-only legislation that seems mainly to be witless pandering to the anti-immigrant sentiment that has focused heavily the past several years against undocumented Hispanic immigrants.
For foreign companies, the source of many new jobs in Tennessee for several decades, an English-only test for drivers' licenses would be both a needless inconvenience and a sign that foreigners are not welcome in Tennessee.
Indeed, foreign executives would have reasonable cause to wonder about public attitudes toward them if our lawmakers appear so eager to present themselves publicly as xenophobic hotheads ready to lead an anti-immigrant rally.
The legislation, which moved forward under the committee's 4-1-1 vote, is also rightly seen by the state's business recruiters leaders as a foolish, if not racist, insult that undermines their efforts to bring new businesses and jobs to Tennessee.
Lori Odom, an official of the state's Economic and Community Development office, underscored that point. She politely urged the lawmakers to "consider the competitive disadvantage that English-only puts Tennessee."
Tennessee Jobs Coalition chairman Dan Haskell agreed that major employer groups in the state opposed the bill. He also pointed out that Tennessee presently provides drivers' license tests in Spanish, Korean and Japanese (think Nissan's mega-plant) in view of business and employee interests in Tennessee.
The state should now want to add German and Chinese to the license test, not take languages away. China is set to become the world's largest manufacturing economy. And German-based Volkswagen and Wacker Chemie AG are both building billion-dollar plants in Chattanooga and Cleveland, respectively.
Providing a drivers' license test in German would be a thoughtful and appreciated gesture. It certainly would be far more beneficial than the English-only bill. In fact, in recruiting Volkswagen, state officials provided drivers' license training materials and tests in German, though the German executives are all fluent in English.
Lawmakers have several reasons to drop the English-only measure. As a practical matter, undocumented immigrants are likely to ignore drivers' license tests if they are not in Spanish. That would mean more, not fewer, unlicensed drivers. Both undocumented and legal immigrants would benefit from better comprehension of state driving laws, and would be better drivers, if they could take the test in their native language.
If the goal is safe, informed drivers, as English-only advocates claim to want, they will drop pursuit of the legislation, and help prove that Tennessee does welcome foreign businesses and employees.